Mercury, Planet
Mercury |- ! scope="row" style="text-align: left"|Apparent magnitude |−2.6[9] to 5.7[2][10] |- ! scope="row" style="text-align: left"|Angular diameter |4.5" – 13"[2] |- ! colspan="2" style="text-align: center"|Atmosphere[2] |- ! scope="row" style="text-align: left"|Surface pressure |trace |- ! scope="row" style="text-align: left"|Composition |*42% Molecular oxygen*29.0% sodium *22.0% hydrogen *6.0% helium *0.5% potassium *Trace amounts of argon, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, xenon, krypton and neon |} Union Planet, Sol System, Capitol City: "Messenger Town" ---- is the innermost planet in the Sol System. It is also the smallest, and its orbit is the most eccentric (that is, the least perfectly circular) of the eight planets. It orbits the Sun once in about 88 Earth days, completing three rotations about its axis for every two orbits. The planet is named after the Roman god Mercury, the messenger to the gods. Mercury's surface is heavily cratered and similar in appearance to Earth's Moon, indicating that it has been geologically inactive for billions of years. Due to its near lack of an atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury's surface experiences the steepest temperature gradient of all the planets, ranging from a very cold 100 K at night to a very hot 700 K during the day. Mercury's axis has the smallest tilt of any of the Solar System's planets, but Mercury's orbital eccentricity is the largest. The seasons on the planet's surface are caused by the variation of its distance from the Sun rather than by the axial tilt, which is the main cause of seasons on Earth and other planets. At perihelion, the intensity of sunlight on Mercury's surface is more than twice the intensity at aphelion. Because the seasons of the planet are produced by the orbital eccentricity instead of the axial tilt, the season does not differ between its two hemispheres. Mercury is one of four terrestrial planets in the Solar System, and is a rocky body like the Earth. It is the smallest planet in the Solar System, with an equatorial radius of 2,439.7 km. Mercury is even smaller—albeit more massive—than the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, Ganymede and Titan. Mercury consists of approximately 70% metallic and 30% silicate material.12 Mercury's density is the second highest in the Solar System at 5.427 g/cm3, only slightly less than Earth’s density of 5.515 g/cm3. Mercury was one of the first planets occupied during the Second Exodus and it was found that th planet was loaded with heavy elements ,making mining a very profitable venture. The then new Corporation SII placed its Headquarter on Mercury and made the little Settlement “Messenger Town” grow in leaps and bounds. SII maintains its HR operations on Mercury to this day and over sventy percent of the 2.5 billion inhabitants work for SII. Mercury was the site for the first Ultra Tox Research Institute and remained a center of toxicology resarch even today. Mercury is represented at the Assembly and the Sol System Council. Sol Castle can only be reached via the Turtle Shuttle Port at Caloris Basin. Security is very tight and Drifters are not allowed. Non Union Citizens are also barred from Mercury. Civics: Planet Council, Planet Major elected. Represented by the Planet Major Office (Planet Representative is Employee and Speaker for the Major) Largest Poison Museum and Collection known. Imports: Paper, Office Supplies, Groceries, Water High Prices paid for Poisons of all kind Exports: Polonium, Plutonium, Uranium, Iron, Category:Planets